The Hair Cut!

Well folks, I finally did it. I got my hair cut here in Italy. For the men reading this blog, you may want to stop reading here and just look at the pictures. The rest may be too much for your masculinity!
I had not had it cut since February. My previous hair dresser would have shot me for this. The split ends were atrocious, and the length in this heat gave me one option of style...up in a clip as shown in the picture from May.
I must admit my language skills are a bit lacking to communicate anything past "Ho bisogno di tagliare doppie punte." (I have a need to cut off the split ends.) Clearly from looking at my hair, the hairdresser could see this need. I am pretty laid back when it comes to my hair, although I have had a few bad hair cuts in the past and it is not fun to live through the growing out stage. The good thing is that I can understand way more than I can speak, so with a few hand gestures a lot of head nodding and many "si, perfetto, ho capito" on my part I emerged with a new hairdo!
I do think I like it, but in the midst of getting it done there were some moments of holding my breathe: as I see hair, much hair dropping to the floor and have no idea what is happening to the back of my head, then again when he moves to the front and I feel him cut a large section. At this point I am bitting my lipping hoping that he has not just given my bangs. Praise the Lord, he had not!
In this salon, they cut your hair dry and then wash and style it. So when he was finished cutting, it looked OK, but the full effect was not there yet.
On to the washing...this part was great! As I sat with my eyes closed having this women massage my head while washing my hair, I almost forgot where I was. It was the first time since I have been here that I felt like I was living my normal life from the US. It was a great moment, but of course, a fleeting moment, because once I opened my eyes, I was transported back to the reality of being a foreigner. I moved to the styling chair and relaxed as another woman dried and styled my hair. As she was styling it, I felt like she was making my hair look like that of a runway model. That blown forward, I should have my cheeks sunken in look and then she used the strongest holding hairspray known to man. It was definitely a new look, of course once I walked out into the heat, the look melted a bit. Hopefully my pictures capture a bit of the style. All in all I really do like it and I think once I style it myself it will be great!
A good friend's comment, "i think that (a hair cut) is one of the last things to acclimate to another culture.", was a true statement. Maybe not the last, but definitely a step closer to acclimating!